Posts Tagged: Matt Bell

Some story collections drop with fireworks and great fanfare, while others make their entrance, it could be said, on tender feet. The latter is the case with the works of Edith Pearlman, who released her fifth story collection, Honeydew, on Tuesday.

For Electric Literature, noting that character shrugs and smiles are usually crutches in fiction, Matt Bell analyzes Cormac McCarthy’s use of smiles in Outer Dark, providing “a good reminder that very few rules hold up everywhere, and that great writers are constantly breaking or disregarding the guidelines that get parroted so often in our writing classes.”

Over at The Believer Logger, Matt Bell conducts a wonderful interview with Kyle Minor. There is a wonderful bit in here about work ethic:

“What I hope, eventually, is that I can get to a situation where I’m spending most of my work time on the projects I care most about—the stories, the novels, the screen work, the essays—and carve out more time for reading and for doing things that aren’t work.

Werner Herzog explained that what Kinski saw as sensuality in the jungle (during the filming of Fitzcarraldo), Herzog thought of as “overwhelming and collective murder.” We begin In the House Upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods in Kinski’s jungle, large and imaginary enough to accommodate a couple’s dream to start a family.

“How much sacrifice is required of a parent? When is it admissible to love yourself more than your child, or in another way, to fear your own death more than the death of your child? Bell doesn’t propose answers, but instead begs us to consider that a real question exists here.”

“Domina, Doreen, Dorma,” published in Everyday Genius, was the first of the stories which make up Cataclysm Baby to surface. Since then, what eventually became a novella puzzled itself out in similarly titled work

“As soon as the wolf forced himself inside her, she sprung her trap, showing him that she too knew what it meant to consume someone whole.”

This week in New York Diane Williams, Rebecca Curtis and Joshua Cohen read at The Bastille Day Soirée, Chuck Klosterman is back Eating Dinosaurs, Candance Bushnell embodies Carrie and takes us back to college, Christopher Finch tells us about Chuck Close’s Life, David Mitchell Reads, Soda Pop hosts a reading series, Williamsburg promotes Martial Arts, Crash Mansion begs us to black out for a $5 open bar, and The Kids are All Right.

Hello

Welcome to TheRumpus.net. We don’t say that lightly—we’re thrilled you’re here. At The Rumpus, we’ve got essays, reviews, interviews, advice, music, film and poetry—along with some kick-ass comics. We know how easy it is to find pop culture on the Internet, so we’re here to give you something more challenging, to show you how beautiful things are when you step off the beaten path. The Rumpus is a place where people come to be themselves through their writing, to tell their stories or speak their minds in the most artful and authentic way they know how, and to invite each of you, as readers, commenters or future contributors, to do the same. What we have in common is a passion for fantastic writing that’s brave, passionate and true (and sometimes very, very funny).(more)